i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, i 



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[UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 

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HOW TO BE SAVED; 



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OR, 



At simitr 

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DIRECTED TO THE SAVIOUR. 



BY 



J. H. B. 




FOETIETH THOUSAND. 



/ 

ST. LOUIS: 

J. W. McINTYRE, 

BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER, 

No. 9 SOUTH FIFTH ST. 

1865. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

J. W. McINTYRE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Eastern District of Missouri. 



PRINTED BY I. ASHMEAD. 



HOW TO BE SAVED. 



My Friend: — 

I have some things to say to you, richly 
worthy of your attention, and full of in- 
terest and happiness to you if cordially 
received. 

By the help of the Divine Spirit, I pro- 
pose to address you on the all-important 
subject of religion, and to tell you how you 
may he saved. I propose to address you 
in plain and simple language; for I have 
learned from my own experience that, not- 
withstanding the instruction we may have 
received in the family, in the Sabbath- 
school, and in the sanctuary, concerning 
the great truths of the Bible, when we 
come to feel a personal interest in those 

1* 5 



b HOW TO BE SAVED. 

truths, we need some one to expound unto 
us " the way of God more perfectly." 1 

We may be convinced that in some man- 
ner we are to be saved by the Lord Jesus 
Christ, if saved at all, and that we are 
required to believe on Him; but what it 
is to believe on Him, and why we must 
believe on Him, and how we must believe 
on Him, and when we must believe on Him, 
are questions about which we may be en- 
tirely ignorant. 

Nor should we be surprised at this igno- 
rance; for the Scriptures tell us that "the 
natural man receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness 
unto him : neither can he know them, be : 
cause they are spiritually discerned;" 2 that 
is, they are discerned by the aid of the 
Holy Spirit. When, therefore, you hear 
ministers of the gospel say in the pulpit, 

i Acts 18 : 26. 2 1 Cor. 2 : 14. 



HOW TO BE SAVED. 7 

as they often do, "Come to Jesus," and 
" Flee to the cross, that you may be saved," 
I doubt whether you understand what they 
mean. This is figurative language, you ob- 
serve ; and I am sure that when I heard it, 
before it pleased God to convert my soul, 
it did not convey to my mind any definite 
idea of the precise thing which I was com- 
manded to do in order to inherit eternal life. 1 
I felt that I would be willing to seek 
Jesus, if He were only on the earth as He 
was eighteen hundred years ago ; but I read 
in my Bible that He "is passed into the 
heavens," 2 and I was constrained to cry 
out, like Job, "Oh that I knew where I 
might find Him ! that I might come even to 
His seat! I would order my cause before 
Him, and fill my mouth with arguments." 3 
I felt that I would be willing to go beyond 
the sea, and to visit the city of Jerusalem, 

i Mark 10 : 17. 2 Heb. 4 : 14. 3 Job 23 : 3, 4. 



8 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

and to kneel upon the very spot where the 
cross was erected, if it could be pointed 
out; but I was satisfied that this would 
not make me a Christian; and, so, many 
months passed away in perplexity and dis- 
tress, because there was no one whom I met, 
to direct me to the "Lamb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world." 1 

Now, I want to avoid, as much as possible, 
all this figurative language, and, in reliance 
upon the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to 
explain the plan of salvation so clearly 
that you will have reason to praise God 
through all eternity for permitting you to 
read this book. 

i John 1 : 29. 



THE SINNER WITHOUT THE SAVIOUR. 



PART I. 

THE SINNER WITHOUT THE SAVIOUR. 

Before entering upon the discussion, I 
desire to call your attention to a few terms 
which are constantly found in the Bible, in 
connection with the subject of human re- 
demption; because it is very important 
that you should know exactly what they 
mean. 

The term grace, then, means the kindness 
of God towards the unworthy or unde- 
serving. 

The term righteousness means that which 
is conformed to the rule of right, or, in 
other words, that which meets the demands 
of the divine law. 

The term projiitiation means a sacrifice 



10 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

offered to God to avert the punishment of 
sin, and to secure His favor. 

The term justification means the de- 
claring or the pronouncing a person right- 
eous according to law; so that, instead of 
being condemned, he is pardoned, and ac- 
cepted, and treated as if he were not guilty. 

The term faith, in its simplest sense, 
means belief on testimony ; that is, when 
any one makes a statement to you, and 
you believe the statement, you have faith 
in him who has made it, and in what he 
says. Such, I say, is the meaning of faith 
in its simplest sense ; but, as you will see 
before finishing the book, saving faith in- 
cludes not only the acceptance of Christ's 
testimony as true, but reliance upon Him 
as our Redeemer, and trust in the fulfil- 
ment of His gracious promises made to 
sinners. 

There are also a few points which I 
hope it is not necessary to prove, and 



WHY ARE YOU TROUBLED? 11 

which, for the sake of brevity, I must take 
for granted. I hope you believe in the 
existence of a holy, just, and merciful God. 
I hope you believe you have a conscience 
which enables you to distinguish between 
right and wrong. I hope you believe in 
the immortality of the soul, and in your ac- 
countability to our Creator and final Judge. 
I hope you believe the Bible to be the 
word of God, and, therefore, truthful. I 
hope that you feel some personal anxiety 
on the subject of religion. 

Now, taking these things for granted, 
as I have said, the first important question 
that arises is the following : 

WHY ARE YOU TROUBLED? 

What has caused this disturbance of 
mind when you reflect seriously upon 
death, and the judgment, and eternity? 
Why are you uneasy and unhappy when 
you think of the Almighty, and of stand- 



12 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

ing in His presence to receive a sentence 
which shall fix your unchanging destiny? 
Why are you not " looking for that blessed 
hope, and the glorious appearing of the 
great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ/' 1 
instead of being alarmed at the thought of 
His coming? 

In answer to these questions, I reply 
that your anxiety is caused by a conscious- 
ness of sin, produced by the work of the 
Holy Spirit. Mark, by a consciousness of 
sin, and not by the mere fact that you are 
a sinner; for I suppose there are multi- 
tudes of sinners who are not troubled 
through months and years together, al- 
though they may be called to die at any 
moment, and to suffer a fearful punishment 
after death. They lie down upon their 
prayerless beds at night, and arise in the 
morning to engage in their daily business, 

1 Titus 2 : 13. 



WHY ARE YOU TROUBLED? 13 

or to run the round of dissipation and vice, 
in undisturbed composure, and in total for- 
getfulness of their just exposure to the 
wrath of that God who " is angry with the 
wicked every day/' 1 and who "is a con- 
suming fire." 2 " The wicked, through the 
pride of his countenance, will not seek after 
God : God is not in all his thoughts."* 

It is not, therefore, simply because you 
are a sinner that you feel anxious about 
your soul, but because you have been 
made conscious of your sinfulness, — because 
the Spirit of God is striving with you. 
Had He not come to convince of sin, 4 you 
would be totally unconcerned about your 
soul ; and you should realize His presence 
and His power, both to encourage you to 
persevere in your efforts to be saved, and 
to warn you of the fearful danger of griev- 
ing the Holy Spirit. 5 

i Ps. 7 : 11. 2 Heb. 12 : 29. s Ps. 10 : 4. 

* John 16:8. & Eph. 4 : 30. 

2 



14 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

But a second question is here presented : 

what is SIN? 
It is necessary to receive a distinct 
answer to this question, since, as I have 
shown you, it is the consciousness of sin 
which causes your fear and uneasiness. 
Some persons seem to think that sin can- 
not be defined nor understood. They 
seem to look upon it as a mysterious evil 
let loose to destroy the inhabitants of the 
earth, like some dreadful plague, whose 
ravages we behold without being able to 
tell what is the precise nature of the dis- 
ease, how it originated, or how its progress 
may be checked. Surely such persons for- 
get that the word of God shows us clearly 
what sin is, and explains its meaning in 
the simplest language. We find it written 
in the Bible, " Sin is the transgression of 
the law." 1 " Where no law is, there is no 

i 1 John 3 : 4. 



WHAT IS SIN? 15 

transgression." 1 " Sin is not imputed/' 
that is, sin is not laid to our charge, and 
we are not treated as sinners, "where there 
is no law." 2 " By the law is the know- 
ledge of sin." 3 " I had not known sin but 
by the law." 4 " For I was alive without 
the law once ; but when the commandment 
came, sin revived, and I died." 5 

The apostle evidently means, by the 
language just quoted, that before he under- 
stood the nature and extent of the law he 
was satisfied with his state and at peace 
with himself; he did not realize that he 
was a sinner and in need of mercy; but 
when the commandment came, that is, 
when he obtained proper views of what 
God really requires of us, sin revived ; he 
saw how vile he was, and he died ; he be- 
came miserable, because he felt that he 
was guilty and undone. If you wish, 

i Rom. 4:15. 2 Rom. 5:13. 8 Rom. 3 : 20. 

*Rom. 7 : 7. 5 Rom. 7 : 9. 



16 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

therefore, to become acquainted with your 
true character and condition, you must not 
compare yourself with sinful men around 
you, but with the holy law of God. If 
you have always obeyed all its precepts 
in thought, word, and deed, you are not a 
sinner; but if you have not obeyed them, 
you are a sinner, and a great sinner, be- 
cause you have not only broken a great 
law and rebelled against a great God, but 
have also neglected and rejected Christ, 
the only Saviour of sinners. And, as we 
shall see after a while, a refusal to believe 
in the name of the only begotten Son of 
God is an offence so heinous that it includes, 
so to speak, all other offences, and fastens 
upon us the weight of a fearful condemnation. 
It is true the Scriptures assert that our 
very nature, which we inherit from fallen 
Adam, is corrupt; for they declare that 
we are "ly nature children of wrath." 1 

i Eph. 2 : 3. 



WHAT IS SIN? 17 

Now, we say of tigers and panthers that 
they are by nature bloodthirsty and fero- 
cious, or we say of lambs and doves that 
they are by nature gentle and timid; and 
in the same manner the Bible authorizes 
us to say of men, they are by nature objects 
of wrath, and, consequently, by nature sin- 
ful. ••Who can bring a clean thing out of 
an unclean? Not one." 1 "Behold," says 
the Psalmist, speaking not only for himself, 
but for us all, "I was shapen in iniquity; 
and in sin did my mother conceive me." 2 
" That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." 3 
But my object in quoting these passages 
is not merely to convince you that your 
nature is depraved, important as it is that 
you should remember this truth : it is 
rather to fix your attention upon the ac- 
tual sins which spring from our depraved 



i Job 14 : 4. 2 Ps- 5i . 5# s j h n 3 : 6. 



18 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

nature as certainly as an impure stream 
flows from an impure fountain. In order 
to know whether you have been guilty of 
these actual sins, it is necessary, as I have 
shown, to know what the law of God 
requires at our hands; for keep in mind 
that "sin is the transgression of the law" 
This brings us, then, to the third question: 

WHAT IS THE LAW OF GOD? 

You must at once perceive my object in 
asking this question. It is to lead you to 
see yourself, to some extent at least, as 
God sees you, and to settle the solemn 
question whether you really need a Sa- 
viour, by showing you your true condition. 
I answer, then, that the law of God is the 
rule which He has revealed in His word 
for the government of our hearts and our 
conduct. What that rule requires we can 
easily learn from the Scriptures. 

On a certain occasion when our Lord 



WHAT IS THE LAW OF GOD? 19 

was upon the earth, a lawyer said unto 
Him, "Master, which is the great com- 
mandment in the law ? Jesus said unto 
him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy mind. This is the first 
and great commandment. And the second 
is like unto it : Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself. On these two command- 
ments hang all the law and tlie prophets." 1 

Now, you will observe that we are com- 
manded to love God perfectly and without 
ceasing, and, of course, to obey Him per- 
fectly and without ceasing, in thought, in 
word, and in act. We are also commanded 
to love our fellow-men as truly as we love 
ourselves, and to consult their interests, 
their comfort, and their welfare as truly 
as we consult our own. 

This is the sum of the law's demands; 

i Matt. 22 : 36-40. 



20 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

and I do not think any one will say it 
requires too much of us, or that it requires 
any thing wrong. To love our glorious Cre- 
ator, Preserver, and Benefactor supremely, 
and to love our fellow-beings as ourselves, 
is surely right; and if all men would do 
this, we should have a happy world indeed, 
even with its many trials and sorrows. 

Inasmuch, then, as " the law is holy, 
and the commandment holy, and just, and 
good," 1 and inasmuch as " the law of the 
Lord is perfect," 2 it is unchangeable. Surely 
all must see that a rule of life which is 
holy, just, good, and perfect is not sub- 
ject to change ; and that it ought not to be 
changed, because, if its requirements are 
in themselves right, it is nothing more 
than right that we should conform to them. 
This law is the expression of God's most 
righteous will, and hence of His unalterable 

i Rom. 7 : 12. 2 Ps. 19 : 7. 



WHAT IS THE LAW OF GOD? 21 

will concerning His intelligent and account- 
able creatures. It is a copy, so to speak, 
of the divine nature ; and unless that na- 
ture ceases to be what it is, — unless the 
eternal throne of Jehovah crumbles into 
dust, — the law can never cease from de- 
manding that we love the Lord our God 
with all the heart, and soul, and strength, 
and mind, and our neighbour as ourselves. 
" Think not," says Christ, " that I am 
come to destroy the law ; for verily I say 
unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from 
the law, till all be fulfilled." 1 

Consequently, though we may be lost 
forever, for rejecting the only Saviour of 
sinners, we will be under as strong obliga- 
tion to obey the precepts of the law as 
are the redeemed in Heaven ; because our 
obligation to obey the moral law depends 

1 Matt. 5 : 17, 18. 



22 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

upon our unchanging relations to God and 
to His government, and not upon duties 
that were designed to be temporary, like 
the ceremonial law of the Jews. 

But another thing which we learn from 
the Bible concerning the law is, that it is 
"spiritual." 1 It demands the service of 
the heart; it takes knowledge of the secret 
thoughts of the mind, and all our least 
desires and purposes. It is not enough, 
therefore, that we aim to render an out- 
ward obedience to its precepts ; " for God 
shall bring every work into judgment, with 
every secret tiling, whether it be good, or 
whether it be evil." 2 "Out of the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphe- 
mies;" 3 and hence the pure and perfect 
law of God pertains as truly to the heart 
as to the external conduct. 

i Rom. 7 : 14. 2 Eccl. 12 : 14. 3 Matt. 15 : 19. 



WHAT IS THE LAW OF GOD? 23 

Let us take, as examples of all the rest, 
two of the precepts of the law which many 
persons suppose they have strictly ob- 
served. 

The sixth commandment is, " Thou shalt 
not kill." 1 Now, the Scriptures prove that 
we may break this commandment without 
taking human life ; for " whosoever hateth 
his brother is a murderer." 2 If, then, you 
have ever hated your fellow-man, although 
you may not have expressed the unkind 
and bitter feeling, it is clear that in the 
sight of God you are a murderer. 

Again, the seventh commandment is, 
"Thou shalt not commit adultery;" 3 and 
no doubt there are thousands of persons in 
this Christian land w T ho would be shocked 
and offended if any one should dare to 
charge them with having broken this pre- 
cept of the law. But let us hear what the 

1 Ex. 20 : 13. 2 1 John 3 : 15. 3 Ex . 2 : 14. 



24 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

Lord Jesus declares concerning its precise 
meaning and extent. " I say unto you, that 
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after 
her hath committed adultery with her al- 
ready in his heart." 1 So, then, while you 
may flatter yourself that in this respect 
at least you are blameless, remember, if 
the lust, the desire, has ever been excited, 
although you may not have whispered a 
single impure word, before God you are 
guilty. It would be easy to show that all 
the other precepts of the law extend to the 
heart as well as to the conduct, and, there- 
fore, that a mere outward obedience is not 
sufficient to meet our obligations to Him 
" which searcheth the reins and hearts." 2 
" Every way of a man is right in his own 
eyes; but the Lord ponder eth the hearts." 3 
But there is another thing about this 
just, unchangeable, and spiritual law which 

*r ■ 

i Matt. 5 : 28. a Rev. 2 : 23. 3 Prov. 21 : 2. 



WHAT IS THE LAW OF GOD? 25 

it greatly concerns you to know. It has a 
penalty, or it threatens punishment in case 
its holy precepts are disobeyed. " The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." 1 " Cursed 
is every one that continueth not in all 
things which are written in the book of 
the law to do them." 2 " By one man sin 
entered into the world, and death by sin; 
and so death passed upon all men, for that 
all have sinned." 3 " Sin hath reigned 
unto death." 4 " The wages of sin is 
death." 5 " Sin, when it is finished, bring- 
eth forth death." 6 

It is clear, then, that the law of God has 
a penalty, and that this penalty is death. 
It would occupy too much of your time 
to quote the numerous passages which 
show what the Scriptures mean by the 
term " death" as the penalty of the law. If 



i Ezek. 18 : 4. « Gal. 3 : 10. 3 Rom. 5 : 12. 

* Rom. 5 : 21. 5 Rom. 6 : 23. 6 James 1 : 15. 



26 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

you are familiar with the Bible, you know 
that more is meant by the word than the 
separation of the soul from the body. You 
know that the ills and sufferings of the 
present life, that the loss of God's favour 
and image, and that endless separation from 
Him amid the pains of hell, make up this 
dread penalty which is inflicted as the 
punishment of sin. God "will render to 
every man according to his deeds ; unto 
them that are contentious, and do not obey 
the truth, but obey unrighteousness, in- 
dignation and wrath, tribulation and an- 
guish, upon every soul of man that doeth 
evil." 1 " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
from heaven with His mighty angels, in 
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the gos- 
pel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall 
be punished with everlasting destruction 

i Rom. 2 : 6-9. 



WHAT IS THE LAW OF GOD? 27 

from the presence of the Lord, and from 
the glory of His power; when He shall 
come to be glorified in His saints, and to 
be admired in all them that believe." 1 
'• And these shall go aw T ay into everlasting 
punishment." 2 

Oh, wiiat a tremendous evil sin must be, 
when "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful 
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant 
in goodness and truth," 3 can thus visit 
upon the sinner such tokens of His right- 
eous displeasure ! 

But it should not surprise you to learn 
that there is a penally annexed to the 
divine law r ; for without a penalty there 
can be no maintenance or enforcement of 
law. There may be advice or exhortation, 
but there can be no law in the sense in 
which I here use the term, as a rule of life 
to which God requires conformity, unless 

i 2 Thess. 1 : 7-10. 2 Matt. 25 : 46. 3 Ex . 34 : 6. 



28 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

there is a penalty as well as a precept or 
command. 

There are certain laws, for example, 
which are designed for our bodies, and if 
# we violate them the penalty is sure to fol- 
low. If we thrust our hands into the fire, 
are we not burned ? If a workman falls 
from a tall building to the ground, is he 
not injured ? If a lamb, in its joyous gam- 
bols, leaps from a lofty precipice, will it not 
be mangled or crushed upon the rocks be- 
neath ? If a little child discovers a deadly 
poison which its mother has carelessly left 
within its reach, and swallows it, will not 
excruciating pain inevitably follow ? There 
can be but one answer to such questions; 
for all must know the sad result of disre- 
garding the laws that pertain to our bodies 
and our health. But why is this sad re- 
sult ? Does our kind heavenly Father take 
pleasure in beholding the sufferings and 
anguish of His creatures ? Oh, no ; but He 



HAVE YOU BROKEN THE LAW? 29 

shows us continually that, although He is 
infinitely compassionate, He will not per- 
mit the rules which He has established to 
be broken, without inflicting the threatened 
penalty. 

There are also laws which are intended 
to govern the mind ;' and the dreadful con- 
sequences of disobeying them may be seen 
in certain cases of insanity of a particular 
type. In looking at these unhappy persons 
in an asylum, and in hearing their shrieks, 
or their more horrible laughter, one might 
think, Surely the God who "doth not afflict 
willingly, nor grieve the children of men,? 1 
must at once put an end to so much misery. 
But not so. He knows that it is best 
to maintain these laws of the mind, and 
therefore permits the fearful penalty to 
be inflicted upon those who break them, 
until the proper remedies are employed to 



1 Lam. 3 : 33. 
3* 



30 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

bring about the obedience which He re- 
quires. 

It is to be expected, then, that the moral 
law of which I am speaking should have a 
penalty, because we can easily see that the 
character and government of God, and the 
interests of all intelligent beings, and, so 
far as we know, the good order of the en- 
tire universe, make it more necessary to 
uphold this great law than to uphold the 
temporary rules that are adapted to our phy- 
sical and mental constitution. 

But, whether you can understand the 
reason or not, it is useless and foolish to 
quarrel with facts; and it is the fact that 
the penalty for sin is death, — death tem- 
poral, death spiritual and death eternal; 
and that this is the penalty of a holy and 
immutable law, which requires us to love 
God supremely and to love our neighbour 
as ourselves. 

There is but one other question of im- 



HAVE YOU BROKEN THE LAW? 31 

mediate interest connected with this subject, 
to which I wish to call your attention, and 
it is the following : — 

HAVE YOU BROKEN THE PRECEPTS OF THE LAW ? 

I might safely appeal to your own con- 
science to answer this question; but it is 
well to have also the testimony of the word 
of God upon a point so important. Listen, 
then, to a testimony which is certainly true. 
"There is none righteous, no, not one. 
There is none that understandeth, there is 
none that seeketh after God. They are all 
gone out of the way, they are together be- 
come unprofitable; there is none that doeth 
good, no, not one." 1 " There is not a just 
man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth 
not." 2 "For all have sinned, and come 
short of the glory of God." 3 "If we 
say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 

1 Rom. 3 : 10-12. 2 Eccl. 7 : 20. 3 Rom. 3 : 23. 



32 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

selves, and the truth is not in us." 1 "For 
in many things we offend all." 2 "Now, 
we know that whatsoever things the law 
saith, it saith to them who are under the 
law: that every mouth may be stopped, 
and all the world may become guilty before 
God." 3 

Such is the uniform testimony of the 
Scriptures; and, if they teach any truth 
whatever, they set forth in the plainest 
and clearest language the sad truth that 
our nature is depraved, that the entire 
human race has fallen, that every one of 
us has sinned, that is, every one of us has 
broken the precepts of God's most holy 
law and failed to meet its most righteous 
requirements. 

What, then, my friend, is your real con- 
dition? Beyond all doubt, just this : having 
broken the precepts of an unchangeable 

i 1 John 1:8. 2 James 3:2. 3 p w0m . 3 : 19. 



HAVE YOU BROKEN THE LAW? 33 

law, you are exposed to its penalty. There 
is no escape from this conclusion. And, 
so far as human reason can discover, there 
is no possible escape from a terrible and 
endless punishment. Think of it a moment. 
"Moses describeth the righteousness which 
is of the law, That the man which doeth 
these things shall live by them." 1 But if 
the man fails to do the things required by 
the law, what then? Why, simply, we are 
forced to conclude, with the inspired apostle, 
" Therefore by the deeds of the law there 
shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for 
by the law is the knowledge of sin." 2 
"Cursed is every one that continueth not 
in all tilings which are written in the book 
of the law to do them." 3 "Whosoever 
shall keep the whole law, and yet offend 
in one point, he is guilty of all." 4 In the 
light of these passages, it is evident that we 

1 Rom. 10 : 5. 2 Rom. 3 : 20. ■ Gal. 3:10. 4 James 2 : 10. 



34 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

cannot be saved on account of any thing we 
can do; for every precept both of the Old 
and the New Testaments forms part of the 
divine law, and a curse is pronounced if 
we keep not all the precepts ; we are guilty 
if we fail in a single particular. 
• Most certainly, a law which convicts and 
condemns cannot at the same time acquit 
and accept us as righteous ; for such a sup- 
position involves an absurdity and self-con- 
tradiction. God promises eternal life on con- 
dition of perfect obedience to His command- 
ments, and threatens death in case of dis- 
obedience. Now, I have before proved 
that you are guilty of disobedience; and, 
consequently, unless the penalty is in some 
way inflicted, the law is dishonoured, the 
divine government is overthrown, and all 
confidence in the divine character is de- 
stroyed. 

You must, then, at once see the folly of 
attempting to escape this righteous penalty 



HAVE YOU BROKEN THE LAW? 35 

by any efforts of your own, and of meriting, 
by any goodness of your own, the favour 
of Him who is " of purer eyes than to 
behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity," 1 
who "is not a man, that he should lie; 
neither the son of man, that he should 
repent." 2 The difficulty is, you are " con- 
demned already." 3 If, therefore, you were 
able to cease from sin while reading these 
words, your future obedience could not 
atone for your past innumerable transgres- 
sions ; for you would be doing nothing 
more than your duty, which you ought to 
have discharged all the time. But the fact 
is, you can never cease from sin by relying 
upon your own strength. Even those who 
have been most sincere in striving to over- 
come sin have been constrained to cry out, 
" The good that I would, I do not; but the 
evil which I would not, that I do. Oh, 

i Hab. 1:13. 2 Num. 23 : 19. » John 3 : 18. 



36 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver 
me from the body of this death T n What, 
then, can you do, poor sinner? Nothing, 
absolutely nothing, to make yourself better. 
You are helpless, " sold under sin," 2 " led 
captive by Satan at his will," 3 and must, 
therefore, turn away from yourself, if you 
would obtain deliverance from this state of 
guilt and of misery. 

And now let us review for a moment the 
ground over which we have passed. 

First. It was taken for granted that you 
have some anxiety or fear when you think 
about God, and death, and the judgment, 
and eternity. 

Second. It was shown that this anxiety 
of mind is produced by a consciousness of 
sin, resulting from the gracious work of the 
Holy Spirit. 

Third. It was proved that "sin is any 

i Rom. 7 : 19, 24. * Rom# 7 . 14> 3 2 Tim. 2 : 26. 



HAVE YOU BROKEN THE LAW? 37 

want of conformity unto, or transgression 
of, the law of God/' and that it is peculiarly 
aggravated by our neglect of the only Sa- 
viour of sinners. 

Fourth. It was seen that the law, which 
requires us to love God supremely and our 
neighbour as ourselves, is unchangeable; 
that it is spiritual, and that it has a dread 
penalty. 

Fifth. It was established beyond dispute 
that you and all men have disobeyed the 
precepts of this law, and are, therefore, 
exposed to its penalty. 

What, then, can be done? What plan 
can human wisdom devise to escape the 
fearful consequences of sin ? " Can thine 
heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, 
in the days that I shall deal with thee ? I 
the Lord have spoken it, and will do it." 1 
That God, " with whom is no variableness, 



i Ezek. 22 : 14. 
4 



38 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

neither shadow of turning," 1 hath declared 
that sin shall be punished ; we have sinned, 
grievously sinned, sinned every day and 
every hour and every minute of our entire 
lives ; and hence, without help from on 
high, and help extended in a way that 
shall meet all the demands of the law, we 
must soon enter the world of the lost, 
" where their worm dieth not, and the fire 
is not quenched." 2 

It may seem hard and cruel in me to say 
these things, and to lead you on, step by 
step, to a conviction of your own wretched- 
ness and danger. But, my friend, a sick 
man must be made to know and feel that 
he is sick, before he will take the remedies 
which the physician prescribes. And so 
you must be made to know and feel that 
your " heart is deceitful above all things, 
and desperately wicked," 3 that your " car- 
nal mind is enmity against God, not subject 

i James 1 : 17. 2 Mark 9 : 44. 3 Jer. 17 : 9. 



HAVE YOU BROKEN THE LAW? 39 

to the law of God, neither indeed can be/' 1 
and that " it is a fearful thing to fall into 
the hands of the living God/' 2 before I can 
hope to do you much good. 

Mark, I do not say that all men must 
have these feelings to the same extent, or 
that you must have them to the last de- 
gree and until you are thoroughly unhappy. 
No, I am very far from saying this ; but I 
do say, you must so realize your sinfulness 
and helplessness that you will not trust 
for salvation in your own goodness, or in 
your own efforts, or in any created strength. 
If you can be persuaded to rely at once, 
gently and quietly, upon the promises of 
an Almighty Saviour, so much the better; 
but if not, then you must be persuaded by 
"the terror of the Lord," 3 and driven, if 
need be, to the very borders of despair. 

For this reason I have been preaching 

i Rom. 8:7. 2 Heb. 10 : 31. 3 2 Cor. 5 : 11. 



40 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

the law instead of the gospel to you. I 
have been trying to shut you up, as the 
apostle says, to the only hope, to the only 
plan by which sinners can be saved, that 
when Christ is revealed, as He will be in 
the remainder of this little book, you may 
joyfully " receive and rest upon Him alone 
for salvation, as He is freely offered to you 
in the gospel." 

After all, then, although my language 
may seem to you cold and unfeeling, it is 
the language of love ; for it is the language 
used by the God who pities you " like as 
a father pitieth his children;" 1 it is the lan- 
guage used by the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
yearns over you with unspeakable tender- 
ness ; it is the language used by the Holy 
Spirit, who is now influencing you, and 
who so graciously offers to renew your 
nature, and to make you meet to be a par- 
taker of the inheritance of the saints in light. 

i Ps. 103 : 13. 



HAVE YOU BROKEN THE LAW? 41 

The sacred writers, you will observe, 
reasoned in the manner which I have 
feebly attempted to follow. They con- 
stantly dwell upon the nature and extent 
of the Divine law, in order to convince 
men of their ruin, and then to direct 
them to the Saviour. They argue that 
"if there had been a law given which could 
have given life, verily righteousness should 
have been by the law. But the Scripture 
hath concluded all under sin, that the pro- 
mise by faith of Jesus Christ might be 
given to them that believe. But, before 
faith came, we were kept under the law, 
shut up unto the faith which should after- 
wards be revealed. Wherefore the law was 
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, 
that we might be justified by faith." 1 

This naturally leads us to consider, in 
the next place, the Saviour's work for the 
sinner. 

1 Gal. 3 : 21-24. 
4* 



42 HOW TO BE SAVED. 



PART II. 



THE SAVIOUR'S WORK FOR THE SINNER. 



Now, an examination of the Scriptures 
will convince you that the work of Christ 
stands directly related to the law about 
which I have been writing; "for if right- 
eousness come by the law, then Christ is 
dead in vain." 1 

The difficulty in the way of your salva- 
tion, remember, is the fact that you have 
broken the precepts of a holy, spiritual and 
unchangeable law, and are, therefore, justly 
exposed to its dreadful penalty. How to 
remove this difficulty is a question which 

i Gal. 2 : 21. 



THE SAVIOUR'S WORK FOR THE SINNER. 43 

human wisdom can never answer. But let 
us see what the word of God says concern- 
ing the plan of redemption devised by infi- 
nite love. 

"When the fulness of the time was come, 
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law, to redeem them th£,t 
were under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons." 1 "For what the law 
could not do, in that it was weak through 
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the 
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, con- 
demned sin in the flesh : that the righteous- 
ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 2 

The apostle does not assert, you observe, 
that the law is in itself weak or insufficient; 
but it is inadequate through the flesh, — -that 
is, on account of our corruption or sinful 
condition. Again, he writes, "Now the 

i Gal. 4 : 4, 5. 2 Rom. 8 : 3, 4. 



44 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

righteousness of God without the law is 
manifested, being witnessed by the law and 
the prophets; even the righteousness of 
God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto 
all and upon all them that believe; for there 
is no difference; for all have sinned, and 
c#me short of the glory of God; being justi- 
fied freely by His grace through the re- 
demption that is in Christ Jesus: whom 
God hath set forth to be a propitiation 
through faith in His blood/' 1 

There are many such passages in the 
Bible ; and they show most clearly, in the 
first place, that Christ came into the world 
to work out a righteousness for us; that is, 
to meet the demands of the divine law, and, 
therefore, to do that which God will approve 
and accept in our behalf. 

They show, in the second place, that, in 
order to work out this righteousness, He 

i Rom. 3 : 21-25. 



THE SAVIOUR'S WORK FOR THE SINNER. 45 

must redeem us ; that is, procure our deli- 
verance from the curse of the law to which 
w r e were exposed, by the payment of a 
ransom. N 

They show, in the third place, that, in 
order to pay this ransom, He became a pro- 
pitiation; that is, a sacrifice, to avert the 
punishment of sin and to secure the favour 
of God in a manner consistent with His 
holy character and with the requirements 
of His immutable law. 

They show, in the fourth place, that, in 
consideration of Christ's suffering, God can 
pardon us, and, on account of what He did, 
God can justify us, and treat us as if we 
were righteous, or as if we had never 
sinned. 

When a man charged with crime is justi- 
fied in an earthly court, it is because the 
charges against him are not proved; and he 
is acquitted because he is held to be inno- 
cent. Well, what personal innocence is to 



46 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

us before an earthly tribunal, the right- 
eousness of Christ is before the high court 
of heaven. A sentence of acquittal is pro- 
nounced in our favour, not because we are 
innocent, nor because the charges are not 
proved, but because of what Jesus Christ 
has done to meet the demands of the law. 

You may remember the story which is 
told in ancient history of iEschylus, a cele- 
brated Greek poet. It is said that he was 
arrested, tried, and condemned for a capital 
crime, and was about to be put to death. 
It is further said that his brother, who had 
distinguished himself in the service of his 
country, and had lost his hand in a battle 
with the Persians, turned to the judges and 
raised his mutilated arm, without saying a 
word. So affecting was the sight, and so 
great their obligation to the hero, that they 
at once released iEsehylus, — not, you will 
notice, on account of any thing he had done 



THE SAVIOUR'S WORK FOR THE SINNER. 47 

to merit their favour, but on account of what 
his brother had done. 

I do not assert that this historical inci- 
dent precisely illustrates the work of Christ 
in our behalf, — for the brother of the poet 
had done nothing to satisfy the claims of 
the law which condemned iEsehylus to 
death; but if the judges could acquit the 
latter on the ground of sympathy with the 
former, and because of their admiration for 
his patriotic exploits, how much more will 
Jesus Christ secure the acquittal of the be- 
liever, when He raises His once pierced 
hands before the eternal throne and pleads 
that He Himself has satisfied the claims of 
justice ! 

But a still better illustration of the work 
of Christ in our behalf is furnished in the 
life of Charlotte Elizabeth. It is there re- 
corded that this eminently pious and useful 
lady undertook to raise and to teach a poor 
deaf and dumb boy, who was called Jack. 



48 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

He was at first extremely ignorant and un- 
promising; but, by the blessing of God upon 
the labours of his devoted teacher, he became 
a remarkably bright and happy Christian. 
"He has told me/' writes Charlotte Eliza- 
beth, "that, when he had lain a good while 
in the grave, God would call aloud, c Jack!' 
and he would start, and say, ' Yes, me, — 
Jack.' Then he would rise, and see multi- 
tudes standing together, and God sitting on 
a cloud, w T ith a very large book in His 
hand, — he called it ' Bible book,' — and 
would beckon him to stand before Him, 
while He opened the book, and looked at 
the top of the pages, till he came to the 

name of John B . In that page, he 

told me, God had written all his 'bads,' — 
every sin he had ever done; and the page 
was full. So God would look, and strive 
to read it, and hold it to the sun for light; 
but it was all 'No, no, nothing, none.' I 
asked him, in some alarm, if he had done 



THE SAVIOUR'S WORK FOR THE SINNER. 49 

no bad. He said yes, much bads; but when 
he had first prayed to Jesus Christ, He had 
taken the book Out of God's hand, found 
that page, and, pulling from the palm of 
His hand something which he described as 
filling up the hole made by the nail, had 
allowed the wound to bleed a little, passing 
His hand down the page, so that, as he 
beautifully said, God could see none of 
Jack's bads, only Jesus Christ's blood. 
Nothing being found against him, God 
would shut the book, and there he would 
remain standing before Him till the Lord 
Jesus came, and, saying to God, 'My Jack/ 
would put His arm around him, draw him 
aside, and bid him stand with the angels 
till the rest were judged." 

The poor boy meant that, though he had 
no righteousness of his own, the righteous- 
ness of Christ would be reckoned as his, 
and God would accept him because of what 



50 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

the Saviour had done to meet and satisfy 
the claims of the law. 

Let us look a little more closely at the 
work which He performed, in order to un- 
derstand precisely what He did to accom- 
plish our redemption. We read, then, that 

CHRIST OBEYED THE PRECEPTS OF THE LAW. 

He "was holy, harmless, undefiled, and 
separate from sinners." 1 He "did no sin, 
neither was guile found in His mouth." 2 
"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible 
things, as silver and gold, but with the 
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb with- 
out blemish and without spot."* His testi- 
mony concerning himself was, " I do always 
those things that please my Father." 4 
Turning to the Jews, on a certain occasion, 
He said to them, "Which of you convinceth 
me of sin?" 5 and, although they had watched 

i Heb. 7 : 26. 2 1 Pet. 2 : 22. 3 1 Pet. 1 : 18, 19. 
* John 8 : 29. 5 j^n 8 : 46. 



CHRIST OBEYED THE PRECEPTS OF THE LAW. 51 

Him with the keenest interest, and had 
eagerly sought some ground of accusation 
•against Him, not one of them dared to say 
that He had ever been guilty of the slight- 
est wrong. Pilate, the Roman governor, 
before whom He was tried, asked His ene- 
mies, " What evil hath He done ?" 1 and said, 
openly, "I am innocent of the blood of this 
just person." 2 "I find no fault in this 
man." 3 Such is the testimony of those who 
put Him to death ; while He Himself de- 
clared, a short time before His crucifixion, 
that "the Prince of this world," the evil 
one, " cometh, and hath nothing in me;" 4 
that is, nothing that he can claim as his 
own, nothing that he suggested, nothing 
that he loves to see, nothing that is even in 
sympathy with sin. 

In short, the Lord Jesus never did a 
thing through the whole of His earthly ex- 

1 Matt. 27 : 23. a Matt . 27 : 24. 

3 Luke 23 : 4. * j^ 14 . 30 . 



52 HOW TO BE SAVED, 

istence which He ought to have left undone; 
He never left undone a thing which He 
ought to have done; He never uttered an 
improper word; and the heavenly purity of 
His soul was never tarnished with a single 
unhallowed purpose or desire. In other 
words, He perfectly obeyed the precepts, 
and all the precepts, of the divine law, in 
thought, in speech and in action, and He 
obeyed them in the very nature that had 
disobeyed them. He possessed human na- 
ture; He was truly a man, in every respect 
like unto one of us, save that He had no 
sin. As a man, He loved God with all His 
heart and soul and strength and mind, 
and He loved all other men as Himself. 
The law, therefore, in its precepts, was 
honoured and satisfied by His spotless obe- 
dience, and it could not require any more 
strict conformity to its commands, or any 
higher righteousness ; for He was holy as 
God is holy. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 53 

But the Scriptures not only declare that 
Christ, in human nature, rendered a fault- 
less obedience to the precepts of the law. 
They also declare that 

CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY OF THE LAW. 

I do not mean by this that He endured 
the whole penalty as we must have endured 
it had He not undertaken the work of our 
salvation; for, as I have already shown, 
eternal death was part of the penalty. I 
mean, however, that He so endured it as to 
meet the ends of the law, — to satisfy fully 
the claims of divine justice, — and, hence, to 
open up a way by which the holy God can 
consistently justify the ungodly. 

We read in history that, in early times, 
Zaleucus, who was ruler and lawgiver 
among the Locrians of Southern Italy, 
made a law forbidding adultery. The 
penalty which he threatened for this crime 
was the loss of both eyes. It is said that 

5* 



54 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

his own son was among the first to violate 
the law, and that the father sternly refused 
to grant the prayers of the people to remit 
the punishment. He dearly loved his son, 
but was determined to maintain the law 
and sustain his government. To do this 
and spare his son, he adopted the plan of 
putting out one of his own eyes and also 
one of his son's. Now, can you not see that 
the object of the law was accomplished, — 
that the end for which it was ordained was 
as well secured, — nay, that it was secured 
even in a better manner than if the precise 
and entire penalty had been inflicted upon 
the son? The great object of the lawgiver 
was fully accomplished, and the community 
received a deeper impression of his inflexi- 
ble purpose to preserve the rectitude of his 
character and the honour of his government 
than they would have received had the ex- 
act measure of the threatened punishment 
been meted out to the son. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 00 

While, then, it is true that the Lord 
Jesus Christ did not endure the penalty of 
eternal death, it is also true that, consider- 
ing the dignity of the sufferer, He met the 
demands of the law, and satisfied the claims 
of divine justice, as fully as if the whole 
race of mankind had been shut up forever 
in the world of woe. 

Remember that He was the brightness of 
His Father's glory, and the express image 
of His person, upholding all things by the 
word of His power. 1 "Who, being in the 
form of Gocl, thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God; but made himself of no 
reputation, and took upon Him the form of 
a servant, and was made in the likeness of 
men; and being found in fashion as a man, 
He humbled himself, and became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross." 2 

Keeping in view, therefore, that the 

i Hcb. 1 : 3. 2 Phil. 2 : 6-8. 



56 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

Scriptures everywhere assert that He was 
very God as well as very man, possessing 
all divine attributes/ names and titles/ 
performing divine works/ and worthy of 
divine worship/ you will be prepared, I 
hope, to believe that His sufferings not 
only indicated amazing condescension, but 
were of infinite value. 

You are doubtless familiar with the fact 
that He made his first appearance among 
men in a stable. You also doubtless know 
that King Herod sought His life while an 
infant, and that after His earthly parents 
had returned to their own country from 
Egypt, whither they had been forced to 
flee, He grew up in the despised town of 
Nazareth, and was called "the carpenter," 5 
and "the carpenter's son." 6 At length, 
when "He came unto His own, His own 



i Col. 2:9. 2 Isa. 9 : 6. 

3 Col. 1 : 16. 4 Heb. 1 : 6. 

5 Mark 6:3. 6 Matt. 13 : 55. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 57 

received Him not." 1 He was as a root out 
of a dry ground, having no form nor comeli- 
ness, and when He was seen, there was no 
beauty that He should be desired. He 
was despised and rejected of men; a man 
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and 
the people hid as it were their faces from 
Him. He was despised, and they esteemed 
Him not; but esteemed Him stricken, smit- 
ten of God, and afflicted. 2 He was the 
"friend of publicans and sinners," 3 and was 
so poor in this world's goods that He Him- 
self said, " The foxes have holes, and the 
birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of 
man hath not where to lay His head." 4 

We read that He frequently withdrew 
from the multitudes which followed Him, 
to engage in secret prayer, and that He 
"continued all night in prayer to God/' 5 
as if oppressed by a burden of sorrow 

i John 1:11. 2 Isa. 53 : 2-6. 3 Matt. 11 : 19. 

* Matt. 8 : 20. * Luke 6 : 12. 



58 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

from which He could find no relief ex- 
cept in communion with His Father. The 
apostle tells us that in the days of His 
flesh He offered up prayers and supplica- 
tions with strong crying and tears unto Him 
that was able to save Him from death; 1 and 
the terrible sufferings of soul and body 
which He knew awaited Him were en- 
dured to a certain extent all the time He 
was upon the earth, because they seemed 
to be ever present to His mind. 

Thus, atone time He exclaimed, "I have 
a baptism to be baptized with; and how 
am I straitened till it be accomplished!" 2 
At another time, w T hen certain Greeks came 
to Philip, saying, " Sir, we would see Jesus," 
He seemed to hail their coming as a pledge 
of the ingathering of all nations; but while 
His Spirit was exulting in the bright pros- 
pect of enlargement for His glorious king- 

1 Heb. 5:7. 2 Luke 12 : 50. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 59 

dom, He suddenly cried out, as if some 
fearful vision had swept before Him, "Now 
is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? 
Father, save me from this hour, but for 
this cause came I unto this hour/' 1 On 
still another occasion, He and His disciples 
"were in the way, going up to Jerusalem; 
and Jesus went before them; and they 
were amazed; and as they followed they 
were afraid." 2 There must have been some- 
thing very extraordinary in the appearance 
of the meek and lowly sufferer to excite 
this fear in His chosen and intimate com- 
panions. 

"And He took again the twelve, and be- 
gan to tell them what things should happen 
unto Him, saying, Behold, we go up to 
Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be 
delivered unto the chief priests, and unto 
the scribes ; and they shall condemn Him 

i John 12 : 27. 2 Mark 10 : 32. 



60 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

to death, and shall deliver him to the Geib 
tiles ; and they shall mock Him, and shall 
scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and 
shall kill Him ; and the third day He shall 
rise again." 1 

Towards the close of His life, the sha- 
dows of these mysterious sorrows grew 
darker, and His anticipations of them be- 
came more painful. At length, after insti- 
tuting a sacrament in which bread and wine 
were used to represent His body bruised 
and His blood shed for the remission of 
sins, He went with His disciples to a place 
called Gethsemane, and, taking with Him 
Peter and James and John, He " began 
to be sorrowful, and very heavy. Then 
saith He, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
even unto death : tarry ye here, and watch 
with me. And He went a little further, 
and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, 

i Mark 10 : 32-34. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 61 

my Father, if it be possible, let this cup 
pass from me : nevertheless, not as I will, 
but as thou wilt. And He cometh unto 
the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and 
saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch 
with me one hour?" 1 "And being in an 
agony He prayed more earnestly; and His 
sweat was as it were great drops of blood 
falling down to the ground." 2 

One of His disciples betrayed Him for 
thirty pieces of silver; another bitterly de- 
nied that he had ever known Him; and 
they all forsook Him and fled. 

Thus, being alone in His anguish, He 
was seized by the multitude and dragged 
to the bar of the high-priest, where, after 
a hurried trial, He was condemned to 
death, and spit upon, and buffeted, and 
treated with shameful indignity. The next 
morning, early, He was taken into the pre- 

i Matt. 26 : 37-40. 2 Luke 22 : 44. 



62 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

sence of Pilate, the Roman governor, who 
reluctantly confirmed the sentence of death, 
and, after ordering Him to be severely 
scourged, a crown of thorns was placed 
upon His head, a cross was laid upon His 
shoulders, and He was led away to be 
crucified. 

Now, I desire you to notice particularly 
that our Lord was not sustained in His 
dying agony, as the humblest of His fol- 
lowers have since been in the conflict with 
death. They have marched to the rack, to 
the cross and to the stake with the air and 
tread of conquerors, while songs of victory 
broke from their lips and bright smiles 
beamed from their faces ; but nothing like 
this marked the bearing of the Sinless One 
on His way to Calvary. He walked with 
faint and weary step beneath His heavy 
burden, until unable to carry it longer; and 
when, at length, He was nailed to the fatal 
wood, between two thieves, a sudden mid- 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 63 

night darkness veiled the sky, and a cry of 
loneliness and of anguish pierced the gloom 
like a wail of despair: — "My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me T 1 

You may think that I have dwelt at un- 
necessary length upon the sufferings of the 
Redeemer ; but I regard it as most import- 
ant for you to be deeply impressed with 
the fact that the only Holy Being that ever 
lived upon the earth was also the greatest 
of sufferers. 

He, the Prince of life, 2 the Lord of glory, 3 
who possessed absolute control over His 
life, so that He could say, "No man taketh 
it from me, but I lay it down of myself," 4 
" Himself took our infirmities, and bare our 
sickness," 5 was sorely tempted of the devil, 6 
endured the rude contradiction of sinners/ 
received the hatred and contempt of the 



i Matt. 27 : 46. 2 Acts 3 : 15. 3 1 Cor. 2 : 8. 

' John 10 : 18. 5 Matt. 8 : 17. 6 Luke 4 : 2. 

* Heb. 12 : 3. 



64 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

world in return for all His goodness/ and, 
while reproach was breaking His heart/ 
was shut out from the light of His Father s 
face, as if He had been guilty of unpardon- 
able sins and deserved to be forsaken of 
God and man. 

And, now, why was this ? Had not God 
said, concerning the righteousness which is 
of the law, "that the man which doeth 
these things shall live by them"? 3 And had 
not Christ done them all, without disobey- 
ing in the slightest particular the least of 
the divine commands? Had not God said, 
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die," 4 and, 
"The wages of sin is death" ? 5 How could 
it be, then, that the Son of God, who knew 
no sin, was a sufferer through the whole of 
His earthly existence, and met at last a 
most cruel and shameful death ? Surely it 
was a death that must have dishonoured 

i John 7 : 20. * Ps. 69 : 20. 3 Rom. 10 : 5. 

* Ezek. 18 : 4. 5 Rom. 6 : 23. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 65 

the character of the Almighty, and over- 
turned His throne, and destroyed the very 
foundations of His government, if no ex- 
planation had been given of it in the word 
of truth. 

But let us see what is said in the Scrip- 
tures concerning this most remarkable 
death. "He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions, He was bruised for our iniquities : 
the chastisement of our peace was upon 
Him; and with His stripes we are healed. 
All we like sheep have gone astray; we 
have turned every one to his own way; 
and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity 
of us all. For the transgression of My peo- 
ple was He stricken. His soul shall make 
an offering for sin." 1 "Messiah shall be 
cut off, but not for Himself." 2 " The Son 
of man came to give His life a ransom for 
many." 3 "Scarcely for a righteous man 

1 Isa. 53. 2 Dan. 9 : 26. 3 Matt . 20 : 28. 



66 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

will one die : yet peradventure for a good 
man some would even dare to die. But 
God commendetli His love towards us, in 
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died 
for us." 1 " Christ died for our sins, accord- 
ing to the Scriptures." 2 

"He is the propitiation for our sins." 3 
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse 
of the law, being made a curse for us." 4 
"Who His own self bare our sins in His 
own body on the tree." 5 "He hath made 
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that 
we might be made the righteousness of God 
in Him." 6 

Now, if language can be used to set forth 
any truth whatever, these passages, and 
many others like them which could be 
quoted, plainly teach that Jesus Christ 
made a real and proper satisfaction for sin. 
He not only obeyed the precepts of that 

1 Rom. 5 : 7, 8. 2 1 Cor. 15 : 3. 3 i j ohn 2 : 2. 

* Gal. 3 : 13. * 1 Pet. 2 : 24. « 2 Cor. 5 : 21. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 67 

holy law which all mankind have violated, 
but He suffered the penalty of the law to 
which all mankind was justly exposed. 
"He appeared to put away sin by the sacri- 
fice of Himself." 1 "And having made 
peace through the blood of His cross/' 2 and 
" blotting out the handwriting of ordinances 
that was against us, which was contrary to 
us, He took it out of the way, nailing it to 
His cross." 3 

Thus it was He satisfied the claims of 
divine justice. He magnified the law and 
made it honourable. 4 He answered all its 
demands upon His people. He confirmed 
its high and holy character. He upheld 
the government of God. He exhibited the 
attributes of His Father in the most daz- 
zling, and at the same time the most sub- 
duing, light ; for it is only in His person 
and work that "mercy and truth are met 

■ Heb. 9 : 26. " Col . 1 . 2 0. 

3 Col. 2 : 14. ^ isaiah 42 . 21. 



68 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

together; righteousness and peace have 
kissed each other." 1 

In this finished work, therefore, it is 
evident that He sustains to those who trust 
in Him the relation of a substitute or 
" surety;" 2 that is, one who engages to meet 
the obligations of another and to pay his 
debt. Suppose that I owed you a large 
sum of money which I was unable to pay. 
Suppose you had power to put me in prison 
and to keep me there until the debt was 
discharged. Suppose I had a friend who 
should come to you and say, "Here is the 
money which my friend owes you; I will 
pay it for him." Now, do you not see that 
the moment you accepted this money I 
must be released from indebtedness and 
confinement, — not on account of any thing 
I had done to pay the debt, but on account 
of what my surety had done in my stead? 

i Ps. 85 : 10. 2 Heb. 7 : 22. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 69 

Paulinus, Bishop of Nola in the fifth 
century, is said to have expended his im- 
mense estate in redeeming from captivity 
his countrymen who had been enslaved by 
the Goths when they overran the empire. 
After his resources had been entirely ex- 
hausted, a poor widow came to him with 
the sad story that her only son, upon whom 
she depended in her old age, had been car- 
ried captive to Africa. Paulinus at once 
left his home, and, having found the young 
man, entered into an agreement with his 
master that he would take his place and 
become a slave in order to secure the return 
of the son to his mother. He undertook to 
meet the obligations of the captive, and 
actually obeyed and suffered for him and 
in his room, for the purpose of redeeming 
him from servitude. 

This is what Jesus Christ, the divine, 
eternal and coequal Son of God, proposes 
to do for those who believe in Him. He 



70 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

offers to take their place, and to discharge 
all their indebtedness to the law, that they 
may be redeemed from its curse, and re- 
stored to fellowship with God. He, and 
He alone, can do this; and hence the apos- 
tle says, " Neither is there salvation in 
any other; for there is none other name 
under heaven given among men whereby 
we must be saved." 1 " There is now no 
condemnation to them which are in Christ 
Jesus ;" 2 but, on the other hand, as I have 
sufficiently proved, and in the very nature 
of the case, there is nothing but condemna- 
tion to them which are not in Christ Jesus. 

But a question of unspeakable import- 
ance here arises, to which I ask your spe- 
cial attention. To whom are these gracious 
offers addressed, and for whom does the 
work of Christ as a surety avail? 

Let the Bible answer this question, as it 

i Acts 4 : 12. 2 Rom. 8 : 1. 



CHRIST SUFFERED THE PENALTY. 71 

answers all the other questions which have 
been asked in the course of our argument. 

" Christ is the end of the law for right- 
eousness to every one that believeth." 1 

Mark, Christ is the end of the law, — 
that is, He fulfils the law, — He satisfies its 
demands, — He removes its penalty, — in be- 
half of every one that believeth, and, of 
course, in behalf of the believer alone. We 
are led, then, to the conclusion that faith in 
the Saviour is necessary to salvation. 

» Rom. 10 : 4. 



72 HOW TO BE SAVED. 



PART III. 

THE NECESSITY OF FAITH IN THE SAVIOUR. 

In the first recorded interview between 
our Saviour and an inquiring sinner, an ac- 
count of which you may read in the third 
chapter of John, we find that, after showing 
Mcodemus the necessity of the new birth, 
or of being renewed by the Spirit, our 
Lord explains how this great change is 
brought about, and how men are to be 
saved. "As Moses lifted up the serpent 
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
man be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth 
in Him should not perish, but have eternal 
life. For God so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 



NECESSITY OF FAITH IN THE SAVIOUR. 73 

believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." 1 And the chapter closes 
with these words: — "He that believeth in 
the Son hath everlasting life : and he that 
believeth not the Son shall not see life; 
but the wrath of God abideth on him." 2 

In accordance with these solemn and 
positive announcements at the beginning 
of His ministry, the great aim of His dis- 
courses and His miracles was to induce 
lost men to believe in Him. When those 
who listened to His preaching asked Him, 
" What shall we do, that we might work 
the works of God? Jesus answered and 
said unto them, This is the work of God, 
that ye believe on Him whom He hath 
sent." 3 When the sick and the suffering 
came to Him for relief, He required of them 
nothing but faith as the condition upon 
which He would grant their requests. "If 



1 John 3 : 14-16. 2 John 3 : 36. 3 John 6 : 28, 29. 
7 






74 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

thou canst believe, all things are possible to 
him that believeth." 1 "He that helieveth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
live : and whosoever liveth and believeth 
in me shall never die." 2 

In accordance, too, with such statements, 
which constantly fell from His lips during 
His personal ministry, He commands His 
embassadors everywhere, and to the end of 
time, to set forth the doctrine of faith in 
Him as necessary to the salvation of lost 
men. After His resurrection from the 
dead, and just before His ascension to hea- 
ven to sit down at the right hand of God, 
He gave this commission to His disciples : 
— " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature. He that believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved; but he that 
believeth not shall be damned." 3 

When, therefore, the apostles went out 

i Mark 9 : 23. 2 j^ n . 2 5, 26. 3 Mark 16 : 15, 16. 



NECESSITY OF FAITH IN THE SAVIOUR. 75 

among all nations to proclaim the glad tid- 
ings, and a convicted sinner came to them, 
saying, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 
they replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved/' 1 And 
when they wrote epistles to the various 
churches, the theme upon which they loved 
to dwell, and which you will find pervades 
all their letters, was still faith in Christ. 
"Being justified by faith, we have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 
" This is His commandment, that we should 
believe on the name of His Son Jesus 
Christ." 3 

You need not be surprised, then, to learn 
that unbelief is a grievous sin. It is more 
than an intellectual mistake : it is a dread- 
ful crime, and will be punished as such. 
"He that believeth not is condemned al- 
ready, because he hath not believed in the 

1 Acts 16 : 31. 2 Rom. 5:1. 3 1 John 3 : 23. 



76 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

name of the only begotten Son of God." 1 
Our Saviour, in explaining to His disciples 
the work of the Holy Spirit in connection 
with human redemption, declares that He 
will first convince the world of sin. But 
of what sin? Why, the sin of unbelief, as 
the chief sin, — as the source of all other 
sins : — " Of sin," he says, " because they be- 
lieve not on me!' 2 Unbelief, among other 
enormities to which it leads, dares to insult 
the Majesty on high, by denying, or, at 
least, by slighting, all that He has said and 
all that He has done for our salvation. 
"He that believeth not God hath made 
Him a liar, because he believeth not the 
record that God gave of His Son." 3 Hence 
it is written, " The unbelieving, and the abo- 
minable, and murderers, and whoremongers, 
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, 
shall have their part in the lake which 

i John 3 : 18. 2 John 16:9. 3 1 John 5 : 10. 



NECESSITY OF FAITH IN THE SAVIOUR. 77 

burnetii with fire and brimstone; which is 
the second death." 1 The fact that those 
who reject the Lord Jesus Christ are classed 
with such vile company clearly shows the 
dreadful nature of the sin of unbelief, and 
conclusively proves that while you retain 
this sin you cannot possibly be saved, how- 
ever amiable and moral you may be in your 
own estimation or in the estimation of your 
friends. 

Faith, therefore, — faith in Jesus Christ, 
— is plainly the turning-point in the destiny 
of your soul. The question which you 
ought to ask is not concerning your past 
life, nor concerning your fitness to be a 
Christian, nor concerning the temptations 
to which you may be exposed in the future, 
nor concerning difficult doctrines in the 
Bible, nor concerning hypocrites in the 
church; for these things have nothing to do 



1 Rev. 21 : 8. 

7* 



78 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

with the great business immediately before 
you. The only question for you to con- 
sider now is the following: — Do you place 
that faith in Christ which the Bible so posi- 
tively declares is essential to your deliver- 
ance from the condemnation of the law, and 
without which "it is impossible to please 
God"? 1 If you do, it shall be well with 
you in life, in death and in eternity. If 
you do not, "the wrath of God" still "abi- 
deth on you." 

In order to answer this great question 
with satisfaction to yourself, it is important 
that you should clearly understand 

WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 

In its simplest sense, as I said at the 
beginning of the discussion, faith is belief 
upon testimony; and that saving faith in- 
cludes, also, reliance on Christ as our Re- 

i Heb. 11 : G. 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 79 

deemer, and trust in the fulfilment of His 
gracious promises made to sinners. Most 
of the knowledge which we possess we ob- 
tain through faith, — that is, through belief 
of what we read, or of what some one tells 
us. For example, you never saw General 
Washington, the first President of the 
United States; and yet you are as fully 
convinced that he lived as if you had 
personally known him. Why are you so 
thoroughly convinced that there was such a 
man? Simply because you have testimony 
to establish the fact which you cannot 
doubt any more than you can doubt your 
own existence. 

It may be you never saw the city of 
Rome, in Italy; but you are perfectly sure 
there is such a city; and, if business or 
pleasure called you to visit it, you would 
leave your own country feeling certain of 
beholding this renowned capital of the Ro- 
man Empire, unless some unexpected pro- 



80 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

vidence interrupted your journey. The 
testimony in this case you do not think of 
calling in question even for one moment. 

It is probable that you have never de- 
termined for yourself the size and distance 
from the earth of the sun and the moon, 
and the various planets belonging to our 
solar system; and yet, I presume, you ac- 
cept without hesitation the testimony of 
practical astronomers upon this subject. 

The truth is, God has so constituted us 
that we are bound to receive and to act 
upon credible testimony with as much con- 
fidence as we rely upon the evidence of our 
own senses. If a person whom you had 
known from your childhood, and whom you 
knew to be strictly truthful, were to come 
to you while reading these words and say 
that a building had just fallen and buried 
beneath its ruins a very dear friend of 
yours, would you not believe him, and 
would you not rush to the scene of the 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 81 

disaster in a state of excitement and grief? 
You would not only accept his testimony as 
true, but his testimony would control the 
feelings of your heart and govern your con- 
duct. 

But if this person, who had never de- 
ceived you, and had never jested, should 
make a distinct and solemn promise that 
he would do for you on a certain day 
something for which you were exceedingly 
anxious, would you not expect the fulfil- 
ment of the promise ? Would you not rely 
on him to be as good as his word ? Would 
not the bare promise impart to you a feel- 
ing of relief and of pleasure? I am sure it 
would, and simply because you believe that 
he is able and willing to do what he says 
he will do. Let us suppose that you are 
in business, and, owing to sudden reverses, 
find yourself unable to pay a note which is 
about due. You go to this person, who 
has heretofore aided you when in need, 



82 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

and ask him to lend you the necessary 
amount. He replies, "I am sorry I cannot 
do it, but my own obligations require the 
use of all the money I can command." You 
turn away in distress and perplexity, not 
knowing where to apply for assistance. 
But suppose the next morning after this 
interview your old and tried friend comes 
to your place of business, and says, " Since 
our conversation yesterday, I have unex- 
pectedly made arrangements by which I 
can let you have the money you want; and 
if you will come to my office at eleven 
o'clock to-day I will give you a check for 
it." 

Now, what is the ground or the reason 
for the satisfaction and delight with which 
you would receive this announcement? 
Clearly, your faith in the man. Tou would 
believe that he could lend you the money, 
that he was willing to do it; and, inasmuch 
as he had promised to do it, that he would 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 83 

do it ; and, hence, by simply believing what 
has been said to you, your mind is relieved 
of all anxiety concerning the payment of 
the note. 

Let us, again, suppose that your business 
calls you to a distant city. On reaching it 
you conclude to walk from the railroad-sta- 
tion to the hotel, rather than wait for the 
crowded omnibus. After walking a long 
distance, you begin to fear that you have 
lost your way. Night is coming on, and 
at length you are completely bewildered, 
and look around to seek direction. Some 
one passing by offers to guide you to the 
hotel. It is probable that you would not 
follow him without suspicion and misgiving. 
You do not know him. You do not know, 
in the first place, whether he is acquainted 
with the streets of the city; and, in the 
second place, you do not know whether you 
can trust him. You cannot feel quite sure 
of his designs, especially if it is too dark to 



84 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

» 

distinguish his features; and perhaps the 
thought will flash across your mind that he 
intends to lead you to some lonely spot in 
order to rob or murder you. But suppose, 
in the course of the conversation, you dis- 
cover the man to be an old friend residing 
in the city, whom you have not seen for 
years, but of whom you have often heard 
as a most benevolent and excellent gentle- 
man. Upon this discovery, and upon his 
renewed assurance that he would conduct 
you safely to your lodgings or to his own 
residence, it is certain you would expe- 
rience an instant sense of relief, and con- 
fidingly follow wherever he might lead. 

Now, how do you account for this sud- 
den change in your feelings ? Why, clearly, 
it is owing to the faith you have in your 
guide. You may not be conscious of rea- 
soning about the matter; but there will be 
a kind of reasoning going on in your mind, 
nevertheless. You will believe that he can 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 85 

clo what he promises ; that he is tvilling to 
do it; and, therefore, you will trust him, and 
accompany him gladly, even along the most 
gloomy and forbidding streets. 

So, then, if a man in whom you have 
faith seriously relates something of which 
he claims to have personal knowledge, you 
will accept what he says as true ; and if he 
seriously makes you a promise you will 
certainly and confidently rely upon him to 
fulfil that promise. 

And now let us apply this to the ques- 
tion of your salvation. I have already 
taken it for granted that you believe thg 
Bible to be the word of God, and, conse- 
quently, that it is true. Well, you read in 
this inspired book a great many historical 
statements concerning various nations and 
individuals. The impression produced by 
these statements will not greatly differ, per- 
haps, from that produced by reading ac- 
counts of similar providential dealings in a 



86 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

history of the United States, or of England, 
because you do not feel that you are per- 
sonally and intimately affected by them. 

But you also read that "the wicked shall 
be turned into hell, and all the nations that 
forget God," 1 where "the smoke of their 
torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." 2 
" It is appointed unto men once to die, but 
after this the judgment." 3 " It is a fearful 
thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God." 4 If you really believe these solemn 
declarations, and feel your own sinfulness, 
the unavoidable result will be anxiety and 
fear. 

In your distress, you turn to other por- 
tions of the Sacred Scriptures, and read, 
" This is a faithful saying, and worthy of 
all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners, of whom I am 
chief." 5 " He is able also to save them to 

i Ps. 9 : 17. 2 Rev. 14 : 11. s Heb. 9 : 27. 

* Heb. 10 : 31. * \ Tim. 1 : 15. 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 87 

the uttermost that come unto God by Him, 
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession 
for them." 1 " The blood of Jesus Christ 
His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 2 "Ho! 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
■waters, and he that hath no money ; come 
ye, buy and eat ; yea, come buy wine and 
milk, without money and without price." 3 
" Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 4 
"And him that cometh to me I will in no 
wise cast out." 5 

There are many such precious invitations 
and assurances in the blessed word of God, 
setting forth the ability and the willingness 
of Christ to save sinners, — nay, to save you, 
even though you are the chief of sinners. 
You may be the chief of sinners, but you 
can be no worse ; and it is a faithful say- 
ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that He 

1 Heb. 7 : 25. 2 1 John 1:7. 3 Isa. 55 : 1. 

* Matt. 11 : 28. 5 j hn 6 : 37. 



88 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

came to save the vilest of the vile. Now, 
if you believe this, why are you not re- 
joicing in hope of the glory of God? If 
Jesus Christ came to save you, and declares 
that He can save you, and that He desires 
to save you, and that He will save you, 
provided you but trust Him, surely you 
ought to believe Him this very moment, 
and lift the song of praise for His amazing 
grace. 

But you may say, "I do not know whe- 
ther the Saviour means me ; and, although 
I desire to believe on Him, I cannot tell 
whether I really believe, or whether I am 
deceived." 

If this is the state of your mind, a ques- 
tion which I am about to ask may assist 
you in understanding Christ's feelings to- 
wards you, and your feelings towards Him. 
I desire you to be entirely honest with 
yourself, to examine your heart thoroughly, 
and to answer the question truthfully and 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 89 

intelligently, since it may reveal your real 
condition, and, I trust, bring immediate 
peace to your anxious soul. 

Now, the question I wish to ask is this : 
Suppose Christ should suddenly appear 
before you while reading these words, and 
you knew it was Christ the Lord, just as 
you know your most intimate friend. Sup- 
pose He should raise His hand, and say, 
with His own voice, ." Son, daughter, thy 
sins be forgiven thee. I died that thou 
mightest live. I am able to save, I am 
willing to save thee. I do not desire thy 
death. I am not indifferent to thy wel- 
fare. I have come from heaven to give 
thee personal assurance of my interest in 
thy happiness. Just as thou art, without 
waiting even one moment, I offer to save 
thee, if thou wilt but trust me. I am to 
pronounce the destiny of all men; and I 
now promise that when thou shalt stand 
before my judgment-seat I will not say, 



90 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

Depart from me, but, Come, blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
thee from the foundation of the world." 

If the Lord Jesus were to make such 
declarations as these directly to you, while 
standing visibly in your presence and look- 
ing upon you, would you believe Him ? 
Would you be satisfied ? Would you rely 
upon Him to fulfil His promise ? Are you 
so much in earnest about your salvation 
that you would trust Him at once, and be 
willing even now to become His disciple, 
asking nothing, wanting nothing beside His 
own divine word to impart a hope of final 
blessedness ? Stop and think before read- 
ing further. Think seriously. I ask, again, 
would you believe these promises, if made 
personally to you by the gracious Re- 
deemer? 

Oh, if you would, then you may believe ; 
for He does make these promises in His 
word, and He makes them as truly, as 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 91 

directly, as sincerely, to you as though you 
were the only sinner on the earth, or as 
though He stood visibly in your presence. 
He hath said, "Whosoever believeth shall 
not perish, but have eternal life." 

He might commission an angel to con- 
vey to you the assurances of His power to 
save, and of His tender concern for your 
soul; He might engrave the declarations 
of His grace upon tables of stone for your 
special benefit; He might write His sweet 
invitations in a letter and send them 
in that form; but what would be the use 
of all this, when He has already addressed 
you, and addressed you personally, in His 
glorious gospel ? If you believe not His 
earnest and solemn words found in the 
Bible, neither would you "be persuaded 
though one rose from the dead." 1 

Faith, then, in the first place, is to be- 

i Luke 16 : 31. 



92 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

lieve that what Jesus Christ says in His 
word is true ; and, in the second place, it 
is to rely upon Him to fulfil His promise 
to save your soul. 

It is, therefore, as simple and easy to 
exercise faith in Christ as it is to believe 
that what an earthly friend tells you is 
true, or as it is to trust in an earthly friend 
to do what he says he will do. Nay, it 
ought to be far easier, because an earthly 
friend may change, or may b.e unable to ex- 
ecute his purpose ; but " Jesus Christ is the 
same yesterday, and to-day, and forever/' 1 
and "doeth according to His will in the 
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants 
of the earth; and there is none that can 
stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest 
thou?" 2 When He who is u mighty to 
save" 3 offers to deliver you from sin and 
hell, there should be on your part a prompt 

i Heb. 13 : 8. * D an . 4 . 35. 3 Isa . 6 3 : 1. 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 93 

and heartfelt acceptance of the offer, and a 
calm, unshaken reliance upon Him to secure 
your salvation. 

You are not to make yourself worthy of 
the offer in any respect or in any degree ; 
for self-righteousness is at the bottom of 
all these efforts "to get fit to come/' and 
pride is at the bottom of all this apparent 
humility that keeps the soul away from 
the Redeemer. There is no promise in the 
Bible to those who are good enough to 
come, for "they that be whole need not a 
physician, but they that are sick." 1 There 
is no promise for to-morrow ; but " behold, 
note is the accepted time; behold, now is 
the day of salvation." 2 

Several years ago, a missionary among 
the Indians was visited by a proud and 
powerful chief, who had been deeply con- 
victed of sin by the Spirit of God. The 



i Matt. 9 : 12. 2 2 Cor. 6 : 2. 

r 



94 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

savage, while trembling under a sense of 
his guilt, like a great many civilized per- 
sons, was unwilling to take the water of 
life freely, and hence offered his wampum 
to avert the dreaded punishment. The 
man of God shook his head, and said, "No, 
Christ cannot accept such a sacrifice!" The 
Indian went away, but, unable to rest be- 
neath the frowns of his Maker, came back, 
and offered his rifle, and the skins he had 
taken in hunting. The missionary again 
said, " No : Christ cannot accept such a 
sacrifice." The wretched sinner withdrew, 
but the Spirit gave him no peace, and he 
returned once more, to offer his wigwam, 
his wife, his children, and all that he had, 
if he could only find pardon and eternal 
life. The missionary was compelled to 
say, "No : Christ cannot accept such a 
sacrifice." The chief stood for a moment, 
with his head bowed, as if on the verge of 
despair, and then, raising his streaming eyes 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 95 

to heaven, his heart poured itself forth in 
a cry of unreserved surrender and consecra- 
tion, "Here, Lord, take poor Indian too!" 

Yes, my friend ; and this is the position 
to which you must come, if you would ex- 
perience the joy of pardoned sin, and "the 
peace of God which passeth all understand- 

ing." 1 

You are not to have love for Christ first, 
and then believe; you are not to repent 
first as much as you think you ought to 
repent, and then believe; you are not to 
strive first for good feelings, and then be- 
lieve. 

You have nothing to do with the past; 
you have nothing to do with the future; 
you have nothing to do with the secret 
things of God ; you have nothing to do with 
false professors of religion ; you must not 
wait for some particular kind of experience 
which you would like to have, or for more 

1 Phil. 4 : 7. 



96 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

feeling, or until your prayers are more fer- 
vent. If He were to give you the feelings 
you want, or grant you the experience 
you wish, before believing in Him, you see 
how certain it is that you would rely, not 
upon Him, but upon your feelings and ex- 
perience, as the ground of comfort. 

This refusal to believe until you can feel 
more, or pray better, or experience a greater 
love for God, is the work of Satan, seeking 
to divert your mind from Christ, and, with- 
out being conscious of it, is only self-right- 
eousness : it is simply a reliance upon some- 
thing you can do. 

All you have to do now is with Christ. 

The first thing you have to do, — the only 
thing you have to do, — wherever you may 
be, while reading these words, — at home or 
abroad, standing or sitting, in health or in 
sickness, — is, now, just noiv, and as you are, 
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Be- 
lieve that He came to save you; believe 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 97 

that He can save you ; believe that He is 
willing to save you, — that He desires to 
save you; believe that He offers to save 
you; and, at once, without delay, without 
doubt, without hesitation, trust in Him to 
do what He promises to do. 

Give up your pride and your efforts to 
make yourself better; and, committing your 
guilty soul and all its interests into the 
hands of Christ, exclaim from the heart, — 

" Here Lord, I give myself away : 
'Tis all that I can do." 

I tell you, heaven and earth shall pass 
away sooner than your soul shall be lost. 

Do this, and you will obtain the peace 
for which you sigh, and the love which you 
desire to feel, and the other graces and joys 
which srping out of this act of childlike 
faith as naturally as a stream springs from 
its fountain-head. 

Then shall you know in your own expe- 
rience of the doctrine taught in this book, 



98 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

and faith will be to you "the substance/' 
the ground or confident expectation, of 
"things hoped for/' and "the evidence/' or 
clear proof and demonstration, "of things 
not seen." 1 

I only wish, in conclusion of what I have 
to say about faith, to call your special at- 
tention to the terms or condition of salva- 
tion, as set forth in Romans, tenth chapter, 
verses sixth to thirteenth : 

"The righteousness which is of faith 
speaketh on this wise : Say not in thine 
heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that 
is, to bring Christ down from above: or, 
Who shall descend into the deep ? that is, 
to bring up Christ again from the dead. 
But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, 
even in thy mouth, and in thy heart : that 
is, the word of faith which we preach; that 
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 

* Heb. 11 : 1. 



WHAT IS MEANT BY FAITH IN CHRIST. 99 

Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart 
that God hath raised Him from the dead, 
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart 
man believeth unto righteousness ; and with 
the mouth confession is made unto salva- 
tion. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever 
believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. 
For there is no difference between the Jew 
and the Greek : for the same Lord over all 
is rich unto all that call upon Him. For 
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
shall be saved." 1 

Here, you will observe, the apostle as- ■ 
serts that there is no difficulty in coming to 
Christ, and no reason for delay or prepa- 
ration. " Whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved." 

Xow, then, call upon Him in prayer, — 
call upon Him sincerely, — call upon Him as 
a helpless, perishing sinner, — and He has 
pledged His eternal w T ord to save you. 

1 Rom. 10 : 6-13. 



100 HOW TO BE SAVED. 



PART IV. 

ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVE IN THE SAVIOUR. 

But, for fear that some anxious sinner 
who has read thus far may still fail to trust 
in Christ, I cannot lay down my pen with- 
out briefly setting forth a few of the en- 
couragements to believe in the Saviour. 
Remember, then, in" the first place, that 
t the Saviour's work is all-sufficient for every 
want of the soul. He does not need your 
assistance in any respect; for, if you are 
saved "by grace, then it is no more of 
works: otherwise grace is no more grace. 
But if it be of works, then it is no more 
grace: otherwise work is no more work." 1 
According to the prediction of the prophet, 
He hath brought in "everlasting righteous- 

i Rom. 11 : 6. 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVE. 101 

ness," 1 and, "being made perfect, He be- 
came the Author of eternal salvation unto all 
them that obey Him." 2 He has answered, 
then, all the demands of the law for time 
and for eternity, and hence "ye are com- 
plete in Him," 3 "who of Grod is made unto 
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi- 
cation, and redemption." 4 

What is the use, therefore, of waiting? 
You cannot supplement His work ; you can- 
not improve upon it. "It is finished;" 5 and 
finished for you as a sinner, and because 
you are a sinner. But "If righteousness 
come by the law," — that is, by your own 
obedience and efforts, — "then Christ is dead 
in vain." 6 You must be saved, if saved at 
all, wholly by Christ. And why not be 
saved noiv? You cannot see Him, but He can 
see you, and offers this moment to pardon, 
to bless, to cause all things to work together 



i Dan. 9 : 24. 


2 Heb. 5 : 9. 


3 Col. 2 : 10. 


1 Cor. 1 : 30. 


5 John 19 : 30. 
9* 


6 Gal. 2 : 21. 



102 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

for your good, to care for your future as well 
as your present, to guide you with His coun- 
sel, and afterwards to receive you to glory. 1 

Why not believe Him this very moment, 
and tru^t your salvation into His keeping? 
"If any man sin, we have an advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 2 
Surely your cause will be safe in such 
hands. He is not only an advocate who is 
perfectly familiar with the case to be tried, 
— He is not only deeply interested for His 
client, — but He is a righteous advocate; 
that is, He Himself has satisfied the claims 
of the law, and pleads, as the ground of your 
acquittal, His own spotless righteousness, in 
the merits of which the guilty sinner can ap- 
proach with boldness the throne of Jehovah. 

Hence it is written, "If we confess our 
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright- 
eousness." 3 Not only, then, the faithful- 

i Ps. 73 : 24. * 1 John 2:1. 3 1 John 1 : 9. 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVE. 103 

ness of God to His promises, but the justice 
of God, requires the forgiveness of the sin- 
ner who asks for pardon in the name of 
Jesus. As justice demands the punishment 
of all who are not represented by Christ, so 
it demands the acceptance of all who are 
represented by Him. As there is nothing 
bat condemnation to those who are out of 
Christ, so there is no condemnation to them 
who are in Christ. 

What possible advantage, then, can you 
gain by delay ? Clearly, none ; and if you 
stay away for years, you must at last be 
saved, if God will bear with you, just as 
you may be saved to-day, by simply relying 
upon the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfil His 
promises made to sinners. 

Remember, in the second place, the 
unspeakable tenderness of the Saviour. 
When He was upon the earth, thousands 
of the sick, the suffering, and the wretched 
were brought unto Him, and He healed 



104 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

them all. Do you read that He ever re- 
fused to grant a blessing to any that asked 
Him? On two occasions, at least, of which 
we are informed by the Evangelists, the 
people crowded around Him after the sun 
was set; and, although He was subject to 
our bodily infirmities, and was doubtless 
exhausted from the constant labours of the 
day, He did not complain that He was 
weary, — He did not close His ears against 
the cries of want and sorrow. 

Among the vast multitude of the diseased 
whom He restored to health, it is almost 
certain that there were some who had 
brought their calamities upon themselves 
by their vices, — it is almost certain that 
among them were found some who were 
vile and altogether unworthy; and yet the 
compassionate heart of Jesus w T as moved 
with pity for all of the afflicted, and He 
listened to the entreaties of the meanest of 
them. Is He not as kind and sympathizing 
in heaven as He was upon earth ? Do not fear 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVE. 105 

to approach Him as you are; for He has de- 
clared that He will by no means cast you out. 

He is "not willing that any should perish, 
but that all should come to repentance." 1 
Beholding Jerusalem, the scene of His suf- 
ferings, and the residence of His bitterest 
enemies, He wept over it, and said, " Jeru- 
salem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the pro- 
phets, and stonest them which are sent unto 
thee, how often would I have gathered thy 
children together, even as a hen gatherethher 
chickens under her wings, and ye would not !" 2 

Who can read these affecting declarations 
without being persuaded that the Saviour 
is in earnest when He offers to save even 
the chief of sinners, and to save them not 
because of their merits, but because of His 
infinite love? 

Oh, He is in earnest; and, as another 
proof of His tenderness, remember, in the 
third place, that He has already sent His 
Holy Spirit to your heart. If you have 

1 2 Pet. 3:9. 2 Matt. 23 : 37. 



106 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

any sorrow for sin, any desire to be saved 
from the power and pollution of sin, that 
desire has been excited by the Spirit of God. 

The reason why you are thus concerned 
about your soul, while thousands around you 
are indifferent, is not because you are better 
than others, but because the Third Person in 
the adorable Trinity has drawn nigh to you 
upon a mission of heavenly grace and love. 

This Divine Person, whose office it is to 
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, 
and of judgment, 1 who renews our nature, 2 
who sanctifies the soul, 3 who guides into the 
truth, 4 who is the Author of all gifts and 
graces, of all right desires and affections, 5 
and upon whom we are entirely dependent 
in receiving the benefits of Christ's redemp- 
tion, even He is striving with you, my 
friend. " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
God;" 6 for if "he that despised Moses' law 
died without mercy, under two or three wit- 

1 John 16:8. 2 John 3:5. 3 1 Peter 1 : 2. 
* John 16 : 13. 5 1 Cor. 12 : 11. 6 Eph. 4 : 30. 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVE. 107 

nesses : of how much sorer punishment; sup- 
pose y e, shall he be thought worthy, who hath 
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath 
counted the blood of the covenant, where- 
with He was sanctified, an unholy thing, and 
hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" 1 

" Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, 
To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not 
your hearts." 2 Yield promptly to the draw- 
ings and follow the leadings of this Divine 
Friend, who can work in you both to will and 
to do of His good pleasure, 3 and whom your 
heavenly Father is more willing to bestow 
upon them that ask Him than any earthly 
father is to give good gifts to his own children. 4 

The Spirit has come, not to mock nor to 
deceive you, nor to inspire vain hopes ; but 
in all sincerity, and in amazing condescen- 
sion, He offers to lead you to Christ for 
pardon and peace and eternal life. Entreat 

*Heb. 10: 28, 29. 2 He b. 3 : 7, 8. 

3 Phil. 2 : 13. * Luke 11 : 13. 



108 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

Him to impart the gift of faith now, and to 
abide with you forever. Entreat Him to be 
your counsellor and guide along the whole 
journey of life. Entreat Him to enlighten 
your understanding, that you may under- 
stand the Scriptures; to renew your will, 
that you may choose that which is well- 
pleasing to God ; to elevate your affections 
to divine and eternal things, and to cause 
you to walk worthy of your high vocation. 
Then, whatever perils or afflictions may 
he before you, " the trial of your faith, being 
much more precious than of gold that per- 
isheth, though it be tried with fire, shall be 
found unto praise and honour and glory at 
the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom hav- 
ing not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now 
ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory : re- 
ceiving the end of your faith, even the salvation 
of your souls." 1 

i 1 Pet, 1 : 7-9. 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 109 



PART V. 

EVIDENCES OF HAVING ACCEPTED THE SAVIOUR. 

But it may be of service to you, in enter- 
ing upon the Christian life, — which I hope 
you have fully determined, by the grace of 
God, to pursue, — to call your attention to a 
few of the scriptural evidences of having 
accepted the Saviour. 

I say scriptural evidences, because many 
persons are seriously misled, or, at least, 
kept for a long time in darkness and distress 
of mind, by reason of looking for the evi- 
dence of their conversion in the experience 
of others, instead of looking for it in the 
Bible. I have known even a few ministers 

of the gospel to err, as it seemed to me, in 
10 



110 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

unconsciously making their personal expe- 
rience a sort of rule by which many of their 
hearers would be apt to judge themselves ; 
and, because they did not have precisely the 
same experience they heard from the pulpit, 
they would fall into despondency and doubt 
concerning their state. Now, the fact is, 
no two Christians have exactly the same 
religious experience, any more than they 
are exactly alike in features, in mental 
peculiarities, in habits, or in history. All 
true Christians are united to the Lord Jesus 
Christ by the one act of faith ; but up to 
the moment of exercising faith the dealings 
of the Holy Spirit with them vary greatly. 
All true Christians find the burden of guilt 
roll from the soul only at the cross ; but each 
is conducted along his own peculiar path 
in order to arrive at the cross. 

Let it not concern you, therefore, to find 
that your experience does not correspond 
in every particular to that of other Chris- 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. Ill 

tians, but rather compare your feelings and 
your purposes with the emotions and the 
aims of the children of God, as described in 
the Holy Scriptures. 

The first evidence, then, I wish to men- 
tion, as revealed in the word of truth, is 
obedience to the precepts of Christ. "He that 
hath my commandments, and keepeth them, 
he it is that loveth me." 1 "Ye are my 
friends, if ye do whatsoever I command 
you." 2 "And hereby we do know that 
we know Him, if we keep His command- 
ments. He that saith, I know Him, and 
keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, 
and the truth is not in him." 3 

There can scarcely be any room for mis- 
take or for deception here, so plainly has 
the Saviour stated the test of our true con- 
dition. If we keep not His commandments, 
and all of His commandments, so far as we 
know them, our hope of heaven is vain, no 

1 John 14 : 21. 2 John 15 : 14. si John 2 : 3, 4. 



112 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

matter what our profession may be, no mat- 
ter what church we may join, no matter 
what religious ceremonies we may observe. 
On the other hand, if we keep His com- 
mandments, we need not express ourselves, 
as so many Christians do, in a doubtful 
manner in regard to our conversion; for 
" hereby we do know that we know Him." 

Neither need we be thrown into doubt 
by our own imperfections ; for, as the Holy 
Spirit has told us, in many things we offend 
all. 

If we desire, aim, and strive to keep His 
commandments, and do not willingly, deli- 
berately, and persistently do what our Lord 
has forbidden, or wilfully neglect to do what 
He has required ; if we take sides with God 
against sin, and long to be free from it, — 
not only from open and outward sin, but 
from secret and inward sin, — that we may 
be perfectly conformed to the character of 
our Saviour; if, with the Psalmist, we can 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 113 

say, " Oh that my ways were directed to 
keep Thy statutes ! The law of Thy mouth 
is better unto me than thousands of gold 
and silver. Therefore I esteem all Thy 
precepts concerning all things to be right ; 
and I hate every false way/' 1 then we have 
decisive and reliable evidence that our faith 
is saving and true, even though it may not 
be triumphant and assured. 

The principle which controls the believer 
in thus striving to obey all the precepts of 
Christ may be readily understood. Not 
only does his nature, which is renewed by 
the Spirit, relish holiness for its own excel- 
lence and beauty, but he is filled with love 
to the Redeemer, who has done and suffered 
so much for him; and love always excites 
the desire to please the person whom we 
esteem. 

An incident is related in the memoir of 
Philip Doddridge that illustrates the power 

i Psalm 119: 5, 72, 128. 
10* 



114 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

of this principle. It is said that a man of 
whom he had known nothing previously 
was arrested, tried, and condemned to death 
for murder. Something in the case excited 
the special interest of Mr. Doddridge in be- 
half of the friendless prisoner; and, at con- 
siderable trouble and expense, he succeeded 
in establishing his innocence beyond doubt. 
Overwhelmed with gratitude for the efforts 
of his benefactor to save him from a felon's 
death, he exclaimed, on one occasion, 
"Every drop of my blood thanks you; for 
you have had compassion on eYery drop of 
it. You are my redeemer in one sense, and 
you have a right to me. If I live, I am your 
property, and I will be a faithful subject." 
So the Christian feels, and so he ought to 
feel, towards the Lord Jesus, who has saved 
us from eternal death at the cost of His own 
life. " We love Him, because He first 
loved us." 1 " The love of Christ constrain- 

i Jolm 4 ; 19. 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 115 

eth us ; because we thus judge, that if one 
died for all, then were all dead ; and that 
He died for all, that they which live should 
not henceforth live unto themselves, but 
unto Him which died for them, and rose 
again." 1 "What! know ye not that your 
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, 
which is in you, which ye have of God, and 
ye are not your own? For ye are bought 
with a price : therefore, glorify God in your 
body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 2 
A second evidence of genuine faith laid 
down in the Bible is love for the brethren. 
"We know that we have passed from death 
unto life, because we love the brethren. 
He that loveth not his brother abide th in 
death." 3 If, therefore, you find that you 
love Christians as Christians, and because 
they are Christians, you may not only ex- 
press the hope that you have been born 
again, but you may know it. There are, 

« 2 Cor. 5 : 14, 15. 2 1 Cor. 6 : 19, 20. » 1 John 3 : 14. 



116 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

however, many anxious inquirers and young 
converts who are seriously troubled when 
this scriptural evidence of regeneration is 
presented to them. They are acquainted 
with persons who are not Christians whom 
they tenderly love; and perhaps they are 
acquainted with professors of religion for 
whom they do not feel any peculiar affec- 
tion; and hence they are apt to doubt the 
genuineness of the work of grace in their 
own hearts. 

Now, you should remember that you are 
not required to feel any repugnance or cold- 
ness towards your unconverted friends; 
neither is the ground upon which love for 
the brethren rests congeniality of natural 
tastes and disposition. It is a higher and 
holier ground than this, — which a simple 
illustration may enable you to understand, 
and at the same time to perceive the state 
of your own feelings. 

There formerly lived, in one of our West- 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 117 

em States, a gentleman and lady who lost 
by death their only child, — a bright and 
beautiful little girl. The mother seemed to 
be almost broken-hearted, and her health 
rapidly declined under the burden of her 
mighty sorrow. Her husband, hoping that 
she would be benefited by leaving home, 
induced her to spend a few months in tra- 
velling. During their temporary stay in an 
Eastern city, they visited an orphan asylum, 
and found the children assembled in a large 
room of the building to engage in some of 
the exercises of the institution. At first 
the bereaved mother looked upon the de- 
lightful scene with the same sadness and 
indifference she had exhibited through the 
entire journey; but suddenly her eye re- 
sumed its former brightness, and the blood 
came again to her pale cheek, as, eagerly 
pointing to one of the orphans, she ex- 
claimed, u Oh, I must have that child, — I 
must have that child for my own." The 



118 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

superintendent was standing near, and in- 
quired why that one child out of scores 
around her had excited such special inte- 
rest. " Because/' she replied, with deep 
emotion, " she is the very image of my own 
lost little Mary." 

This, then, is the reason why you will 
love the brethren. It is because they 
bear the image of your beloved Lord; and 
wherever you behold that image, no mat- 
ter among what denomination of Christians 
it may be found, if you are a Christian you 
will certainly love it, and find your heart 
going out to him on whose character and 
life it is impressed. " Every one that loveth 
Him that begat loveth him also that is be- 
gotten of Him." 1 

The third and last evidence of true faith 
which I will mention as presented in the 
Scriptures is a change of views, affections, 
purposes, and habits. "If any man be in 



i 1 John 5 : 1. 






EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 119 

Christ, he is a new creature; old things are 
passed away; behold, all things are become 
new. 

Here, again, I have known persons to 
trouble themselves needlessly. They say 
they are not conscious of any marked 
change, and, therefore, cannot hope that 
they have been born again. They say that 
for years, and perhaps even from childhood, 
they have been anxious about their souls, 
and cannot remember the time when they 
were not more or less concerned with re- 
gard to religion. They have prayed, and 
read the Bible, and listened attentively to the 
preaching of the gospel, and sometimes al- 
most trusted that they loved the Lord Jesus. 

Now, I desire to say, for the comfort of 
such persons, that probably they have for 
a long time possessed faith, without the 
assurance of it. It is certain, at least, that 
they have been under the restraining and 

1 2 Cor. 5 : 17. 



120 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

governing influence of the Holy Spirit; and 
the work of grace is carried on so quietly 
and gradually within them, they must not 
expect those marvellous and overwhelming 
manifestations of divine power in their con- 
version of which they have heard in the 
case of a few others. Some of the bright- 
est Christians it has ever been my privi- 
lege to meet could not tell the day, nor the 
month, nor the year when the great change 
took place; and the Bible furnishes in- 
stances in which persons were regenerated 
in early childhood, and sanctified from the 
womb. It is not by visions, neither by 
raptures, but "by their fruits ye shall know 
them;" 1 and I trust the evidence we are 
now considering will excite joy, and not 
terror, in more than one sad heart. 

The Scriptures declare that the " car nal" 
or unrenewed "mind is enmity against 
God; for it is not subject to the law of God, 

i Matt. 7 : 20. 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 121 

neither indeed can be," and "they that are 
after the flesh do mind the things of the 
flesh." 1 

It follows, therefore, that the unregene- 
rate man leaves God out of view in his 
plans and aims. He does not like even to 
think about Him; and whatever amiability, 
or kindness, or friendship he exhibits 
towards his fellow-men would be as fully 
manifested though he did not believe in the 
existence of a Divine Being. 

Hence, it is as proper to say of the brutes 
that they are virtuous or religious, because 
they exhibit love for their young and affec- 
tion for each other, as it is to say of such a 
man that he is virtuous or religious while 
practically declaring " there is no God." 2 

But if he becomes a sincere believer in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, he is filled by the 
spirit of adoption with such filial reverence 
for his neglected Maker that he is enabled 

1 Rom. 8 : 5, 7. 2 Ps. 14 : 1. 

11 



122 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

to cry, "Abba, Father." 1 Once he lived 
only to advance his temporal interests, and 
to secure the riches, the honours, and the 
pleasures of this world; but now he feels 
that " the friendship of the world is enmity 
with God/' 2 and looks "not at the things 
which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen: for the things which are seen 
are temporal; but the things which are not 
seen are eternal." 3 Once he gloried in his 
possessions, or in the admiration of men; 
but now he can say, "God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is cruci- 
fied unto me, and I unto the world." 4 Once 
the Bible was a sealed book to him, and 
the precious messages of a Saviour's love 
were thrown aside for the news of the 
day, or for an idle tale of fiction; but now 
he can say, "Oh, how I love Thy law! 

i Rom. 8 : 15. 2 James 4 : 4. 

3 2 Cor. 4:18. * Gal. 6 : 14. 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 123 

How sweet are Thy words unto my taste ! 
yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth." 1 
Once the prayer-meeting and the honest 
preaching of the truth were distasteful or 
wearisome to him; but now he can exclaim, 
" I was glad when they said unto me, Let 
us go into the house of the Lord." 2 " For 
a day in Thy courts is better than a thou- 
sand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the 
house of my God than to dwell in the tents 
of wickedness." 3 Once he turned his back 
upon the Lord's table hi heartless indiffer- 
ence, or cruel contempt; but now he joy- 
fully confesses Him before men, and with 
gratitude obeys His dying command, " This 
do in remembrance of me." 4 

And so I might go on, if necessary, to 
enumerate the peculiar feelings of the "new 
creature;" but enough has been said, no 
doubt, to indicate the greatness and the 

i Ps. 119 : 97, 103. J Ps. 122 : 1. 

3 Ps. 84 : 10. * Luke 22 : 19. 



124 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

reality of that change which is expressed in 
the Scriptures by the phrases, "Ye must 
be born again/' 1 and "Ye are dead, and 
your life is hid with Christ in God." 2 

It is a fact plainly stated in the word of 
God, and confirmed by the experience of 
the most devoted Christians, that once w T e 
"were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein 
in time past we walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince 
of the power of the air, the spirit that now 
worketh in the children of disobedience: 
among whom also we all had our conversa- 
tion in times past in the lusts of our flesh, 
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the 
mind ; and were by nature the children of 
wrath, even as others." 3 

It is also a fact just as plainly revealed 
in the Scriptures, and just as fully confirmed 
by the experience of true Christians, that 
saving faith in the Lord Jesus worketh by 

i John 3:7. 2 Col. 3:3. « Eph . 2 : 1-3. 



EVIDENCES OF FAITH. 125 

love; 1 that it purifieth the heart; 2 that it 
overcometh the world; 3 that it causes the 
believer to recognize his Master's claims 
upon him as His property, the purchase of 
His blood; 4 that it leads him to present his 
body a living sacrifice, — holy, acceptable to 
God, — which is his reasonable service ; 5 and 
that it raises his conversation to heaven, 
"from whence also we look for the Saviour, 
the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change 
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like 
unto His glorious body, according to the 
working whereby He is able even to sub- 
due all things unto Himself." 6 

If, therefore, you discover that it is your 
chief aim in life, and your fixed purpose, by 
the help of God, to glorify Christ, you are 
undoubtedly a Christian. Notwithstanding 
the temptations to which you are exposed, 
and the remaining corruptions of your na- 



1 Gal. 5 : 6. 


2 Acts 15 : 9. 


3 1 John 5 : 4. 


* 1 Cor. 6 : 20. 


5 Rom. 12 : 1. 
11* 


* Phil. 3 : 20, 21. 



126 HOW TO BE SAVED. 

ture, and the sharp conflicts you may en- 
dure, you have certainly exercised faith, 
and are certainly united to the living Sa- 
viour, as the branch is united to the vine. 

"Then let your songs abound, 

And every tear be dry ; 
You're marching through Immanuel's ground 
To fairer worlds on high. 

Only see to it that, " leaving the princi- 
ples of the doctrine of Christ, you go on to 
perfection," 1 ' " abstaining from all appear- 
ance of evil," 2 cheerfully surrendering, for 
the sake of your Lord, every custom, amuse- 
ment, or fashion that is even of doubtful 
expediency, 3 and making it the fixed habit 
of your life, "whether ye eat, or drink, or 
whatsoever ye do, to do all to the glory of 
God." 4 

i Heb. 6:1. 2 1 Thess. 5 : 22. 

3 1 Cor. 10 : 23. * 1 Cor. 10 : 31. 



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